Inspector general plans wide-ranging reviews in 2010

New Orleans Inspector General Ed Quatrevaux's office has announced an ambitious work program for 2010, including auditing how much the city pays to house prisoners, auditing hotel tax payments, evaluating the results of economic development grants made in 2007-08 and reviewing the effectiveness of the city's efforts to assist local small and disadvantaged businesses.

During 2011-13, the office plans to review a long list of city government activities and functions, including property tax assessments, code enforcement, blight-fighting programs, street construction and repair, how the proceeds of bond issues are spent and how the post-Katrina recovery program has been managed.

It also plans to audit the city payroll and various fees the city receives from Armstrong International Airport, Municipal Court and the Sewerage & Water Board.

Besides specific audits and program reviews, the office also plans to "screen new contract proposals to assess (their) risk level" and "monitor high-risk contracts."

It also will review both current and pending laws and regulations "and make recommendations relating to fraud and abuse, or efficiency and effectiveness, in city programs and operations."

Quatrevaux took over the top job at the inspector general's office in October after several months of turmoil following the resignation of the city's first inspector general, Robert Cerasoli, in January.

The inspector general is hired by an independent board, not the mayor, so Quatrevaux will remain in office after Mayor-elect Mitch Landrieu takes office in May. Landrieu has expressed his support of the inspector general's office.

Quatrevaux recently announced his office would review the city's contracts with MWH Americas Inc., a Colorado engineering company, to manage a federally mandated project to reduce the amount of sewage flowing into Lake Pontchartrain; Beveridge & Diamond, a Washington, D.C., law firm, to handle records-retention issues including public-records disputes with the news media; VisionIT, a Detroit firm that formerly was in charge of the city's Web development and computer-based mapping divisions; and Disaster Recovery Consultants, a Florida firm that helped the city compile damage reports after Hurricane Katrina.

The independent police monitor also is part of the inspector general's office, and one of the office's tasks will be getting the monitor's office up and running, including choosing a new monitor to replace Neely Moody, who resigned in September, a month after he was appointed.